, apologising courteously for its poor quality, and
explaining that it was the only drink he had been able to obtain for sale
during the War! A glance at the rows of empty bottles in his shop-window
confirmed the statement. God knows how he had earned his living during the
past three years.

Towards evening the head of the long column entered Beyrout: from miles
behind on the hills we could see the swinging kilts of the Highlanders,
while the sound of the bag-pipes floated faintly back to us. By eight
o'clock, we, too, were marching into the town through crowds of delirious
people, who clung to the troops as they passed and kissed the boots of the
mounted men; it was the most painful, pitiful experience of all. As we
swung down the hill towards the beach a man said: "You are just in time,
monsieur; in six days we should all have been dead."

That was the main thing: we had marched ninety-six miles in six days, we
were dog-tired after a last continuous trek of eighteen hours, but--we were
in time!

CHAPTER XXII

DESERTED VILLAGES IN LEBANON

Sixty thousand people died of starvation in Beyrout during the War, out of
a total population of one hundred and eighty thousand. There is
overwhelming proof that this was a part of the brutal policy of systematic
extermination adopted by the Turco-Germans towards the weaker races of
Syria and Palestine. When Beyrout was evacuated the enemy collected all the
food they could lay hands on, including the recently garnered harvest; and
what they were unable to carry away with them they dumped in the harbour
rather than give it to the starving people. Four hundred tons of foodstuffs
were wantonly destroyed in this manner; and as an example of callous and
spiteful vengeance, towards a people whose chief fault apparently was that
they were hungry, this would be hard to beat.

The mortality amongst children was appalling. You could not ride out of the
town without seeing their dead bodies lying by the roadside, where they had
dropped from the arms of mothers too weak to carry them, often enough
themselves lying dead a few yards farther on. In the poorer quarters of the
town, especially near the docks, the dreadful death-roll lengthened every
day. The Turks had gone out of their way to destroy many of the houses,
with the result that hundreds of people were wandering about, foodless,
homeless, and utterly friendless. For the first few days most of our work
was carried on in and